Homemade Cleaning Products

Green Cleaning on a Budget!

Did you know that homemade cleaning products will get your house as clean as commercial brand cleaners?
In addition, you will avoid unwanted toxins and potentially save some serious money. In fact, I am
willing to bet you have nearly everything you need to get your house looking great right now.

Think about the bottles of cleaners you have in your home today. You know the ones. They have a poison
or cross-bones symbol on them. Did you know every time you use these cleaners, you leave a residue on
the surface you just cleaned? This can be dangerous for everyone in your family. Think about your child
crawling across your newly cleaned floors. Think about your kids putting their toothbrushes on the
bathroom counter and then in their mouth.

This is not good.

Yearly, chemical based cleaning products account for nearly 10% of all toxic exposures in North America.
Many store-bought cleaners have been linked to skin irritations, asthma and even cancer. That is some
pretty scary stuff we are bringing into our homes and the simple fact is we don’t need these products to
get our homes clean.

Some skeptics wonder if homemade cleaners can do as good of a job as their chemical based cousins.
The fact is they can. Green cleaning is gaining momentum for good reason. Not only do homemade cleaning
products help us get rid of these nasty toxins, they can save us a pile of money over time.
These money-saving cleaners are usually made from:

Baking soda – great for almost everything and a natural deodorizer

Tea tree oil – provides a fresh and natural scent

Washing soda (Sodium Carbonate) – great for removing oily stains

A natural soap or detergent – double check the label to verify it is chemical free

White distilled vinegar – an economical natural agent that is an effective cleaner

Here are a couple simple examples of how baking soda can replace expensive store-bought cleaners. Use
baking soda to clean the counter tops in your kitchen or bathroom. By making a paste from baking soda
and water, you create a very powerful cleaner.

Try adding baking soda to a bowl in any room in your house to remove unpleasant odors. You can even
sprinkle it on your carpets and then vacuum it up minutes later. This works very well if you have pets
and want to get rid of the smell they can leave behind.

In general, homemade products cost a mere fraction of the price associated with their
chemical based cousins. And they do a great job. Industry estimates put the cost of homemade cleaning
products at about 10 percent of their commercial counterparts.

Let us put it another way. To do comparable work, for the $100 you spend a year on store-bought
cleaning products, homemade cleaning products will do it for just $10. I may not be a math genius,
but I can figure that one out for sure.

There are a number of natural cleaning products on the market today. If you don’t have the time to
make your own homemade cleaning products there are lots of options out there. Stay green to get it
clean, you will be happy that you did.